Left Behind
by Karen
Summary: "You know what it feels like to be the one left behind too! I didn't ever want to feel that way again- not ever!"
1. Prologue

Left Behind

A fanfiction for _"Blue Exorcist"_

By Karen

**Prologue**

(Seven or eight years ago)

"Yukio? Hey, Yukio!" my big brother by a few hours (Something he never let me forget) poked his head into our room where I had been confined for the past week due to a bad flu that was going around.

I quickly tucked the latest book of Demonology I had been reading under my pillow. Daddy had reminded me that Rin wasn't to know the truth about our connection to Satan or my training to be an exorcist. The guns were the hardest to hide.

"Hey, Brother," I greeted him as he came in with a small plate of food and some chopsticks.

He sat himself down at the edge of my bed and handed me the plate. "Lunch!" he announced proudly. "I know sashimi's your favorite!"

I smiled. Ever since that awful omelet Daddy had forced himself to eat to spare Rin's feelings, my brother had gotten to be a much better chef in such a short time.

"Thanks," I said gratefully as I took the chopsticks and ate a small bite. "I think I'm a little hungrier today."

He nodded. "Daddy says that's because you're getting better. You were barfing up everything and had a real bad fever."

I tilted my head and studied him through my wide, thick glasses. "Should you still be here though? I mean you could catch the flu too, Brother."

He made a face and shook his head. "Nah! I've never been sick a day in my life."

No, he just got into scrapes and had to be patched up all the time. I mentally rolled my eyes. He was always braver and tougher then me though, something I both admired and envied him for, even at seven.

"You're lucky then," I answered. "It felt awful! I mean, I thought I was gonna die!"

"But you're not gonna die," he argued. "You're still gonna be a doctor when you grow up, right?"

I shrugged. "People can still die before they're all grown up, you know."

Rin put his hands on his hips. "Yeah? Well I _knew_ you weren't going to die of the flu! So there!"

"How did you know, Brother?" I asked, blinking in surprise.

He grinned. "Because _I _wasn't sick with the flu, Yukio!"

Confused, I tilted my head. "Huh? What do you mean?"

My brother shrugged. "Well, we're twins right? We were born on the same day, so that means we'll die on the same day too. If you were gonna die of the flu, I'd have been dying of the flu right along with you."

"Hmmm, yeah, I guess you're right," I agreed. The brilliant logic of a pair of grade schoolers!

"Yeah! And you're gonna be a doctor, and it'll be you and me in this old church with all these old farts!" he laughed, playfully tweaking my nose.

Yes, at that age, that was what we believed.

I laughed too and held out my pinky finger. "Really? Swear, Brother?"

"Uh huh! Swear!" he agreed cheerfully sticking out his own pinky finger and linking it with mine. "We'll never leave each other behind!"


	2. Truth

**Truth**

(Present day)

The sound of Rin's tortured screams brought me running to the site where the alchemic array had been arranged to open the gate between Gehenna and Assiah. There he was, my older brother, strung up like Christ on the cross. His trademark blue flames surrounded him, mixed with the red electrical currents from the activated array. This wasn't supposed to happen!

"What's the meaning of all this?" I demanded to the man who had recently introduced himself as our late mothers father, the newly elected Pope, Ernest Frederick Egin. "What are you planning to do with my brother?"

He eyed me with a self satisfied sneer, so unlike the caring, long lost grandfather he'd pretended to be earlier. "Isn't it obvious? I'm using him as a living sacrifice to open the Gehenna Gate."

I wanted to punch myself out for being so naive! I might have known! "That's not what you told me!" I protested, as if somehow that would change anything. "I only agreed because you promised to turn Rin back into a human!"

"Rin must serve as a human sacrifice," came the cold reply. "Because of his actions today, surely he will go down in history as the hero who destroyed Gehenna."

As he spoke, the sun had just begun to set and the other members of the Order continued to pray and chant while Rin suffered, vomiting his own blood onto the array.

"Living Sacrifice?" I murmered in shock. Even after all this time of training to be an exorcist, nothing could have prepared me for this!

He explained smugly that after years of reaserch he had discovered that the roof of True Cross Academy was the ideal venue to connect Gehenna and Assiah, but only by adding Rins blood could the Gehenna Gate be opened.

"Ridiculous!" I shouted. This fool was mad! And I must have been mad myself to go along with him in the first place! "You could pump out every drop of blood from my brother's body and it wouldn't be enough!"

Again, he eyed me smugly. "That would be true.. if he were a human. With his demonic healing powers, an excessive loss of blood would be inconsequential. Rin will go down in history as a martyr. As the hero who saved Assiah!"

That did it! Rin was still screaming in pain and losing even more blood. As awful a brother as I was, there was no way I would let him suffer like this because of my own stupidity! I pointed one of my 1911 firearms at him "Release my brother at once!" Our grandfather or not, if Rin didn't make it out of this alive, neither would he!

"It won't do any good to shoot me," Egin replied arrogantly. "A bomber plane carrying the Messiah has already taken off from the Dragoon Laboratory. It should be arriving above True Cross Academy any minute now..."

This caught me off guard and I gasped.

"That bomber plane will heed no one's orders but mine," he continued. "If I don't open the Gehenna Gate the Messiah will only explode on the grounds of this school."

It was as if he'd stabbed a knife in my back. _"What?"_

"We are past the point of no return," Egin said before bursting into near hysterical laughter.

My hand trembled as I kept the gun fixed on him. That monster! Threatening the whole Academy unless I let him do this to Rin! Then again, I was just as bad myself... I had blamed Rin for our fathers death, telling him to either give himself up to headquarters or die. I had taken part in overthrowing the Order. I let those titles of Preceptor of Japan's True Cross Knights and Paladin go to my head and practically started a demon hunting holocaust! Worse, I had let myself be manipulated into betraying my own brother to be used as a living sacrifice! Dad would never forgive me!

Slowly, I lowered my gun and averted my eyes in defeat, no longer able to bear watching Rin be tortured to death like this. Neither he nor anyone else should have to pay for what I've done!

"In that case," I finally said quietly, "I'll take his place."

This seemed to surprise him. "What?"

"I'll be the one to open Gehenna Gate," I stated more decisively, ignoring the mark on my arm that had now spread so far along even my sleeve barely covered it. "So let my brother go!"

Egin seemed to be considering it... Finally he answered "Very well."

I hurried over to assist the other Knights members in taking Rin down from that cross. He was unconcious, but still breathing. Thank God for his demonic healing abilities!

I knelt by my brother and placed the Kurikara sword beside him, silently praying that he and the others might be able to do something to stop all of this when he came to, even if I wasn't there...

I took what I thought would be my last look at him... There was so much I wanted to say and apologize to him for, yet all I could manage was to quietly murmer "Brother..."

Then I turned to the array and quickly, before I either lost my nerve or Rin could wake to see it and stop me, I slit my wrist...

Almost the moment my blood joined Rins on the array my glasses cracked from pressure. I felt a burning sensation thoughout my body and I screamed with pain as my ears became pointed and my teeth long and sharp. Now I know how Rin must have felt when he'd first drawn Kurikara that night.

For the next few moments, I could barely register what was happening around me, but I heard Egins voice as he no doubt revelled in his sucess... Then, I heard the familiar voices of the Exwires, my friends and students, who were standing nearby... No! What were they doing here? They had to get away!

"Yuki-chan!" Shiemi cried running towards me.

But I motioned her away with a blue flaming arm. "Stay back!" I warned.

The Gehenna Gate, which seemed to resemble an enormous mass of black skulls rose from our blood on the array and seemed to grow larger by the second...

By now, the bomber plane was above us and had just launched the Messiah... It fell like a star down into the Gate and it's light broke through the dark mass...

Egan was gloating, but, to my shock as well as his, the light soon dissipeared, and in that moment all Hell literally broke loose! Demons rose from the Gate and began to swarm like the locusts in the Exodus story!

"What's going on? I thought he launched the Messiah...?" I wondered aloud.

It was then heard a voice I thought I would never hear again... _"Apparantly, he failed miserably."_

I spun around. "This voice..."

_"Gehenna could never be extinguished by such piddling fireworks!"_

"Don't tell me it's... Dad?'

_"That's right," _the voice laughed mockingly,_ "I'm Satan. I'm your Daddy!" _

"Damn you, demon!" I turned on him. We would never call anyone but Shiro Fujimoto our father! "Are you trying to rattle me by mimicking Dad's voice?" If he was, it wasn't going to work!

_"I'm not mimicking him. After all, his was the last body that I possessed," _came the explaination. _"And now I sound exactly like him!" _

He had no right to! Hearing Dads voice coming from Satan was making me nearly ill!

"Shut up! If only you'd never set foot in Assiah, Dad wouldn't have died and my mother wouldn't have been murdered!"

But I would never have expected Satan to say what he did next...

_"You know, you've got it all wrong. I wasn't the one who killed Yuri. It was that man." _

Stunned, I turned to where Egin was trapped and struggling in the gate that was pulling him down like quicksand, begging for my help...

_"You look like you have no idea what I'm talking about. In that case, I'll show you! Everything that I saw with my own eyes!" _

I had never seen memories through someone else's eyes before, and that experience was almost as shocking as what I saw through Satan's point of view... Our mother, Yuri Egan, she had looked like me from her coloring to the moles on her face (I should be proud of mine from now on) but her personality was more like Rins, impetuous and having compassion for demons, even winning over Satan himself!

Satan had loved Yuri? Her own Father, Ernest Egin, had been the one to sentance her, my brother and I to death? The Blue Night was caused when Satan had tried to posess a vessel strong enough to rescue her? I suppose this means I should thank Rin for smiling at Dad when we were babies, otherwise he might have killed us both after she died in childbirth that night.

"Impossible..." I protested. "What's the truth? What the hell am I supposed to believe?"

_"I just showed you nothing but the truth," _Satan answered. Then he continued spitefully _"If you don't believe me, then why don't you ask His Holiness who's half buried over there?" _

Our grandfather... No! After this, there was no way I would ever refer to him as our grandfather again! He was struggling to keep from being swept away into the Gehenna Gate, still having the nerve to actually beg for my help!

"I want you to tell me the truth." Coldly furious, I walked to the edge of the gate and seized Egin by the sleeve of his robe. "Was it you who gave the order to burn my mother, Yuri Egin, at the stake?"

He was shocked. "How did you know...?"

That was as good as a confession, but I wanted more!

"Answer me!" I demanded, "Now!"

"That's right... I gave the order..." he admitted without a shred of remorse.

My face fell... Perhaps, deep down, I was hoping it really wasn't true...

Egin, of course, tried to justify his actions. "But she told me she was going to bear the spawn of Satan!" he argued. "It would have been bad enough if they were human children, but... The spawn of Satan!"

His own daughter! "Didn't you love my mother at all?"

The answer came as a painful blow. "In my heart, Yuri was dead! She died the day she gave birth to you two.. The cursed sons of Satan! You've tarnished the Egin name... I'll never aknowledge that you two even exist!"

Enraged, blue flames rising, I raised my fist to strike him... but the end of his sleeve tore off in my hand and Egin was sucked down into the Gate of Gehena before I could do anything...

"No..." I whispered... As much as Egin deserved to be punished, I hadn't wanted this to happen...

_"Dammit!"_ I screamed and almost the moment I did, I could once again hear Satan's cruel laughter. "No way!"

But he still laughed in delight. _"At last I've aquired it- my ideal vessel!" _

_No!_ Oh, please, dear God, no! But my nails and teeth became longer and sharper and the blue flames became even stronger.

_"Since half the blood in your veins is mine, it's no wonder that you're a perfect fit, right down to your fingertips!" _

The next moment, everything went black and my last thought was that I was leaving Rin and the others to the mercy of Satan...


	3. Satan's Spawn

**Satan's Spawn**

_"Yukio!"_ I could hear the familiar voice of my brother yell out my name...

I awoke in darkness, but I could just make out Rin's face in front of me... "Brother...?"

Somehow, I had to get back to him and everyone else! I started fighting through the darkness that entrapped me, but it only seized me again and again.

_"I won't let you go," _I could hear my own voice as a child tell me. _"You don't really think you can be the only one to escape do you? When we know you hate Rin!"_

Hate him...? I had to admit, if only to myself, I both loved and hated Rin at the same time... but...

_"Rin, who grew up without a clue... But I could always see the demons. Ever since I can remember..."_

"That's not true!" I protested. "I never..."

But images flashed before my eyes... Memories of cowering in the hallway in terror upon the sight of a demon... Memories of Rin doing things I couldn't, like climbing up that tall pole to retrieve my hat for me...

_"Rin has no trouble doing what I can't do... Rin always gets what I'll never have- without even trying... Rin's so unfair! I hate Rin! If only Rin didn't exist!"_

"No... That's not true!" I yelled back again. While I both loved and hated Rin, I actually hated _myself _more for always being the frightned weak one! For not being able to save our dad! "I... I.."

Somehow, I was able to gain control of my right arm and reach out to Rin...

"Brother..." I whispered. "Help me... Brother..."

Seeing that I was regaining my senses, he ran towards me, his hand outstretched...

"Yukio!"

I managed to stetch out my right hand further towards him...

"Brother..."

Finally, in what seemed like surreal slow motion, our hands clasped and it was as if Rin had just pulled me out from the Gehenna Gate itself... I got that same feeling as when I was little and he used to defend me from whatever local bully was picking on me...

Then there was a loud shot from the gun in my left hand...

I watched in shock and horror as blood spread on the side of Rin's shirt and he crumpled to the ground, barely concious...

I sank to my knees, my right hand on my head, crying out in agony over what I had just been possessed to do.

_"I never thought you'd really regain your senses..." _came Satan's voice again._ "But I'm not letting you get away. You belong to me!" _Then he raised my trembling left arm and made me point the gun at Rin again._ "Finish him off! Kill him and then we'll finish creating the real world that we've dreamed of!"_

Rin was bleeding, but still alive. Once again, thank God for his demonic healing abilities. I knew though, that even he couldn't withstand being shot multiple time...

_"Do it!_" Satan continued to demand. _"Do it! Now!"_

But somehow I managed to use my right hand to pull the gun away from my brother. I swear, if we both lived through this, I would try not to nag Rin about homework again!

"I can't do it!" I protested. There had to be some way out of this!

_"What did you say?" _

"You know who's going to die?" I decided. "You... and me!" As I spoke, I raied the gun to my head...

I hadn't been able to do anything to help Rin or save Dad the night he was killed... Dad had given his own life to protect Rin from Satan, so maybe now It was my turn...

_"Y-you bastard! _

Really? And just who's fault was _that?_

_"Goddamn wretched priest! Are you going to take your own life too... and bring me down with you? Ridiculous!"_

Alright, I know this was beyond desperate and this was completely sick... but I'd made a promise to protect my brother! If I was going to protect Rin... and this world... Then this was the only choice that I had!

_"Stop it! Yukio, don't be so rash! If you die, then the dream I shared with Yuri will be..." _

As if we or anyone else gave a damn about Satan's dream! As if Mom would want him doing this to us!

Rin... Shiemi... Shura and the others... I made silent goodbyes to them all as I readied myself to pull the trigger...

But before I could, Rin had leapt up and grabbed my arm, pulling the gun away from my head.

"Stop trying to be the only cool one here!" he yelled as we struggled over the gun. However weakened, he held fast to my wrist, pulling the gun further away. "Do you seriously think you'll be satisfied with killing Satan by killing yourself?" he demanded. That's a load of crap!"

I'm so sorry, Brother... but I can't let Satan keep using me like this...

We wrestled for control over the weapon, but I knew I was losing... Rin had managed to pull the gun away from my head. Any longer and it wouldn't be aimed at me anymore. Satan would still have control of me and use me to go after Rin and the others...

I could see the gun was now aimed lower, at my heart... If I could just get my finger on the trigger before Satan took control over me again...

Then the gun went off once more...

There was intense pain in my chest and blood immediatly began to stain the front of my uniform... but an enormous wave of immense relief washed over me as I felt Satan leave my body and the flames subside...

_"Nooo!"_ Rin screamed as I collapsed to the ground. He knelt by me and shook me vigorously. "You idiot! You damned, four eyed, mole faced idiot! How could you do that?" Then his eyes began to rim with tears and his voice cracked with greif. "You know what it feels like to be the one left behind too! I didn't ever want to feel that way again- not ever!"

A tear ran down my own face. "I know, Brother... I'm sorry... but... this was the only way..."

In response, he placed an arm around my shoulder and embraced me...

By now the evening sun had finished setting and night had arrived...

"Rin! Yuki-chan!" came Shiemi's voice. Thankfully, she was safe. To my surprise, Shura was following her towards us. All three of them looked more then slightly worse for whare. Something told me I didn't want to know what had gone on while I was possessed.

"It's okay, Yuki-chan, you'll be allright!" Shiemi said kneeling beside me as Rin laid me down... She summoned Nii to help her with treating the injury, but I knew enough about this kind of bullet wound to the heart to realize it probably wouldn't do much more then ease the pain a little... Especially with what I had only recently discovered about my own body in regards to my demon side being awakened...

Of course, I wouldn't upset her by telling her all that. "Thank you, Shiemi-san," I answered. I noticed the bruises on her neck. What had Satan made me do to her?

Then I turned my head to meet Shura's empathetic gaze... "Heh... Sorry..." I said ruefully. "I... I guess I really am a four eyed chicken after all..."

Unexpectedly, she knelt down beside Rin and Shiemi and shook her head with a sad smile.

"No, kid. I thought you were really brave... Pretty stupid, but brave."

This got a halfhearted chuckle from me.

It was just that moment Satan picked to let us know his pressence still remained. His manical laughter seemed to come from all around us...

_"I never dreamed that I could be knocked off my feet like that. What a surprise. But I have to tell you... my dream isn't over yet!"_

As he spoke, what looked like dozens of bolts of lightning struck the bloodied array, and to our astonishment, the Gehenna Gate rose up into the night sky and let loose it's demons...


	4. Stop Time

**Stop Time**

In spite of our concern for his wound, Rin, true to form, immediatly lept up with his sword and destroyed the first demons to attack

"I'm okay. A scratch like this doesn't mean shit!" he called back to us reassuringly.

The gate then sent a firey blast down towards my brother which he just managed to evade.

"What's this?" He gasped.

"He's expanding the gate to try and swallow up Assiah!" Shura observed.

Unless we stopped him, it was all going to go as Satan planned... My first gun was gone, but my second was still in its holster... If only I could just reach it before... but I could barely move...

Another blast was aimed towards Shura, Shiemi and I... Shura got in front of us while Shiemi threw her arms around me protectively...

We heard Rin's cry of alarm and braced ourselves for the hit... but it never came. Amazingly, Arthur Aguste Angel stood in front of us, having repelled the attack with his sword...

"You villains who would crush innocent wildflowers in your hands. I, Arthur Aguste Angel, shall bring you to justice!"

"Took you long enough, Baldy," Shura growled.

Seriously, what was it with those two?

"You sure you're okay?" Rin asked her.

In response, she gave him a cocky grin. "I haven't sunk so low that I need you to worry about me."

"It offends me that I must join forces with the sons of Satan," Arthur added, "but It can't be helped."

The three of them then went grimly to work, aiming every attack they could at the demons and the gate, but in the end it only served to bring about more destruction around us and drive the gate away to attack the city!

_"Rin!"_ I heard an unfamiliar voice and saw the two tailed cat hurrying towards us...

Kuro! Since my own demoic side had been awakened, it seemed I could hear him now too. Surprisingly, he didn't look like he wanted to tear me apart for what I'd almost done to him earlier.

"Where've you been?" Rin asked, glad to see him.

_"Sorry. I won't run away anymore," _he apologized as he changed into the much larger version of himself, the nekomata form. _"After all, I'm the familiar of the most powerful exorcist of all- Shiro!" _

"You haven't got much time, Brother," I said, "but you can still stop Satan."

He turned back to me, eyes worried. "Yeah, but what about you...?"

"Don't worry, we'll watch over him, Rin," Shiemi assured him and Shura and Arthur nodded in agreement.

He looked at me, then at Kuro and then back at me again... Then he placed a hand next to Shiemi's, which was covering my still bleeding chest wound with her herbs...

"You'll be okay, Yukio," he said before leaving to jump onto Kuro's back with his sword. "I promise!"

I had to sigh as I watched them fly off. How many times had I told him not to make promises he couldn't keep?

I could see them flying higher through he air towards the gate, and for a moment I felt the same as when I was little and Rin had climbed up that tall pole to get my hat for me... proud of him.. grateful... but still envious of him and angry at myself for being unable to do anything...

Though he'd drawn Kurikara and was once again engulfed in the blue flames, it was all Rin could do to hold back the black mass and the demons coming out of it, never mind getting close enough to destroy it...

Maybe now there was something I could do to help...

Gritting my teeth, trying not to cry out from the pain, I somehow finally managed to reach the remaining gun in my holster and draw it out...

"No, Yuki-chan!" Shiemi warned. "You should keep still! Moving will only..."

But I had already drawn the gun and aimed it at the demons flying straight for Rin. Summoning the last remaining bit of my physical strength, I pulled the trigger and was able to take a few of them down before the gun fell from my hand and my arm dropped to my side.

But more of them came to take their places and Rin still wasn't managing to get any closer to the gate.

Suddenly, a light broke through in the direction of the gate... Sunlight...? But that couldn't be... Yet the demons were repelled and distracted by it, giving my brother an opening to attack the gate...

Ingenious! However they accomplished it, I knew it had to be the other Exwires doing!

We watched in awe as Rin struck the gate with Kurikara... For a few moments it was surrounded with the blue flames, before finally dissipearing for good...

Thank God! Even though I knew it had been our mother's dream for humans and demons to live in peace with eachother, there was no way she could have ever wanted it like this!

The next thing I knew, Rin was back and Kuro was his regular size again. The rest of the Exwires, Ryuji, Renzu, Konekomaru, Nemu, Izumo and Noriko, came out to greet my brother joyfully.

There was rough housing and a gruff chewing out from Ryuji and the others, then Shiemi stood up.

"Rin! What were you thinking?" she demanded. "You're always so reckless!"

"Woah! I'm so busted!" he gasped.

She ran over and embraced him with tears of relief. "Do me a favor... Don't make me worry so..."

That was Rin, always doing what I couldn't. I knew I wouldn't be a match for him.

He smiled. "What are you, my mom?" Then he asked, "How's Yukio?"

Her face fell... "He's still with us... but..."

"Yukio!" he hurried over to my side while Shiemi knelt and cradled my head in her lap...

Shura came forward and stood near Rin while the others watched sadly...

Rin took my hand. "Hey!" he said, trying to put up a bright front. "We did it."

"Yeah..." I answered whisfully... Then I averted my gaze from his... "I'm sorry, Brother... This is all my fault. It's all because I interfered..."

For a moment he was quiet... then he gave an exagerated sigh and put a hand on his side in mock exhasperation. "I gotta admit, you're selfish and stubborn, and you don't look up to me at all as your big bro... Talk about a cruel kid brother!"

At this, I found myself looking back at Rin again.

"You never said a word about being able to see that I was a demon..." he continued on. "Plus, you're a cram school teacher. And on top of that, a Paladin? I'm telling you, having a competant kid brother like you is such a huge burden on big bro!" Then he reached out and tweaked my nose, like he used to do when we were little. "From now on, you're just going to have to lean on me for once- like you did when we were kids, okay?" he grinned.

In spite of the pain, I managed a weak half-smile in return. "Thanks, Brother... but... I'll probably get demoted now at the very least... And my body can't handle demonic powers or heal the way yours can... so... it looks like you'll have to work at becoming Paladin for both of us now..."

Realizing what I was saying, Rin, Shiemi's and even Shura's expressions became stricken.

"Yuki-chan, no! You can't!" Shiemi cried, tears streaming down her face.

Shura turned her face away in greif and Arthur sadly put a hand on her shoulder.

Rin, my brother and only remaining family... Shiemi, the girl I'd loved since she'd given a shy, awkward thirteen year old boy a clover for good luck... I had known of their feelings since that first time I'd seen them together in the garden... As envious as I was, I hoped the two people I loved the most would take good care of eachother...

Then there was Shura, the big sister I was glad I'd never had, who could probably read me better then anyone... Them all being here now made me feel at least a little stronger...

"Rin... I have to tell you something... Right before Satan posessed me, I saw his memories... I saw our mother..."

My brother's eyes widened in surprise and interest. "Really? What was she like?"

I thought for a moment... How could I describe what I'd seen though Satan's eyes of Yuri Egin, the women who'd died to give birth to us?

"She lived in a cabin in the woods... And she gave birth to us in a cave on a snowy day... She was... really beautiful..." I finally said...

I could tell Rin wanted to hear more, but he nodded. Then he took my hand again.

"First mom, then the old man... but I won't let you go too, Yukio."

"It's allright, Brother... I've kept my promise to protect you... so I don't mind... I can be brave, like you... Just... just place me beside dad... and tell everyone at the monestary thank you for everything, will you?"

Shiemi's tears fell on my face and cracked glasses. "No, Yuki-chan! Please hang on! You can't go now! There's still so much more we have to learn! So much more you have to teach us!"

"Right!" Rin agreed, his voice sounding strained. "And we're twins, so we're supposed to go together, remember? This isn't that day! We'll get you to the hospital and I'll bring you the best sashimi ever! Your favorite! And I want to hear more about mom, so don't you leave me alone now!"

But my brother wouldn't be alone now. He had Shiemi and Kuro and Ryuji and Shura and all the others. They were probably all better company then I had been for him anyway.

By now my body was starting to feel cold and numb... I was struggling just to keep my eyes open...

I heard Shiemi sobbing and felt Rin's hands on my shoulders.

"Yukio! Yukio!" He cried, shaking me in a panic. "No! Stay awake! Don't close your eyes!"

"Yuki-chan, please..." Shiemi begged. "We need you..."

Rin held me and rested my head against his shoulder. "Don't go!" he yelled in a desperate plea. "You hear me!? _Don't you __**dare**__ leave your big brother behind like this!_"

Mom? Dad? I'm sorry. I know I didn't do a very good job, but Rin is going to be just fine. The three of us can watch over him together from now on.

The End

Blue Exorcist © 2009 Kazue Kato


End file.
